Disease "Documentary" #2

[highmystica]

I woke up this morning and me eyes were all puffy as if I had been crying in my sleep, which is kinda odd considering that my dream was very much just like watching a documentary ... I wasn't even really in the dream. Which is strange in itself, it really was like watching a documentary.

the dream starts off and i'm looking at a picture of little bacteria projected onto a screen, they are oval shaped, bacilli???. And this disembodied voice is telling me that this disease had been engeneerd from a couple of sources. It then tells me that the russians were working on an early version of this disease back during the cold war. They had altered the plasmids greatly increasing the number of environments this "bug" could survive in. At some point or another this bacteria managed to get out and had to be cleaned up. Then on the screen I see this lakes edge and all the animals have died - fish, insects, birds, mammals - everything except the plants. The voice goes on to explain that at this point a U.S. operative had snuck in and taken a sample of this disease.

Then I see a complex in eastern germany. Here during the cold war they had also been working on altering this disease through its plasmids, however they took it in a different direction - something to do with the way it multiplied, I didn't totally understand what they did. So then after the end of the cold war the CIA managed to get a sample of this disease too.

So then I see some government buildings here in the U.S. and that same voice is explaining that the U.S. took these samples and combined the plasmids with their own diseases and then further altered the rna of the bacteria a bit and ended up with something beyond nasty.

So then I see test subjects. They have this disease and are covered in a strange film, this disease is now human specific and can grow anywhere in the body - skin, lungs, digestive tract, eyes - whatever. These poor victims would eventually suffocate to death - slowly as the bacteria infected more and more of the lungs. The disease would continue to break down the body after death, and at some point the disease would change color to a vibrant orange because it wasn't getting "something" from the body and would have to change the way it was processing enzymes. It seems that they either intentionally, or accidently altered this disease so that it would continue to live as long as some portion of human flesh remained - the scientists were disturbingly pleased by this - they figured it would increase the chances of this disease spreading further in a society ...

That's about where I woke up, and then upon reflection of the dream is when I got really disturbed. I watered down the full suffering of the people that were infected - I don't think anything so upsetting has ever been generated in my sub-con, and then the juxtaposition of the scientists that were "proud" of their accomplishment ... shakes head.

I was wondering if anyone else has dreampt of a similar disease or has any thoughts ...

 

[Snowalker]

This sounds alot like Micoplasma. The little research I have done indicates that Micoplasma is a weaponised bacteria that can survive in a spore-like state while waiting for a host. Once infected the bacteria will interact with various cell groups causing disease depending of which cell group is attacked. It is possible that many of the recent "diseases", autoimmune in particular, are caused by micoplasma.

 

[highmystica]

Hmm, I just did a quick look around on the net for mycoplasma, and though they are certainly an interesting group, they don't fit the bill quite as well as a Bacillus would. The things in my dream certainly had cell walls where as mycoplasmas do not. Likewise many of the bacillus can survive in a spore like state. Also I didn't see anything about whether or not mycoplasmas have plasmids,thats not to say they don't - just that I didn't see it. Strangely though with the small size of the mycoplasmas genetic code it wouldn't be impossible to creat a plasmid out of it and then inject the plasmid into the host bacillus, I remember in college having to inject plasmids that created the outer shell of the HIV virus into e-coli ... any wonder I ran away from biology after awhile - well that and o-chem made my head hurt. Anyway, I also think that the weaponization of mycoplasmas is relatively new, whereas the majority of the research of the disease in my dream was during the cold war - of course the military likes to keep it toys secret, I would not be supprised if they have a whole arsenal of prion based weapons by now. The other thing that makes me suspect a basillus is that one of their favorite toys is anthrax ...